The airline blamed the incorrect scanning of a boarding pass for the reason why a mother was forced to hold her two-year-old son on her lap for the duration of a three-hour flight, reports Fortune. Shirley Yamauchi had purchased a ticket that cost almost $1,000 for her son but was forced to let a standby passenger take the seat instead. Yamauchi told a flight attendant about the issue, who allegedly shrugged off the complaint. The mother said the reason she didn’t speak up more on the flight was because of United’s recent reputation for making people give up their seats:

“I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news,” she explained. “The violence. Teeth getting knocked out. I’m Asian. I’m scared and I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t want those things to happen to me.”

After learning of the news a United spokesperson said:

“We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience. We are refunding her son’s ticket and providing a travel voucher. We are also working with our gate staff to prevent this from happening again.”